Showing posts with label Hungarian Grand Prix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hungarian Grand Prix. Show all posts
Monday, 27 July 2026
LEWIS HAMILTON F1 SPEEDING PENALTY MARTIN BRUNDLE DUBBED AS 'HARSH' QUESTIONED
The pit lane speeding penalty issued to Lewis Hamilton in Hungary has been questioned.
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| Hamilton was hit with yet another penalty in Hungary |
Sky Sports F1 pundit Anthony Davidson has questioned the five-second time penalty issued to Lewis Hamilton for pit-lane speeding at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton was hit with his second penalty in two days - and fourth in the past three race weekends - after the stewards found he had exceeded the 80km/h pit lane speed limit by just 0.1km/h during Sunday’s race at the Hungaroring.
Hamilton finished fourth on the road but the penalty dropped him to fifth behind Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc once it was applied after he crossed the line.
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| Hamilton picked up another penalty in Hungary |
Analysing the incident on the SkyPad, former F1 driver Davidson said he could not see what Hamilton did wrong.
“I’ve looked at this so many times and I can’t work out why he gets a penalty,” Davidson said during Sky Sports F1’s coverage of the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“For me, he slows down sufficiently well. We’ve got this marker board on the left-hand side that stipulates the 80km /h speed limit. I don’t see that [speeding].
“Let’s have a look at the exit. Obviously knew he was under time pressure to get out in that race with Antonelli. Again, for me, it sounds like he releases the pit lane button on the line itself.
“This guy knows what he’s doing when it comes to white lines and when to press the button. Maybe there was just an error when he was a bit too close to the line on the actual speed of the car and they were just pinged by that. Who knows.
“Strange that it only happened that one time. I don’t have enough data here and I can only go by the sound of when he’s pressing that button. For me, it looked totally fine on the way in, and on the way out.”
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| Hamilton finished fourth on the road but was demoted to P5 |
Fellow ex-grand prix driver turned Sky Sports F1 analyst Martin Brundle described the penalty as “harsh”, but acknowledged the rules have to be black-and-white.
“It’s like being a quarter of a kilo underweight. You’re going to feel aggrieved, but the rules are the rules in that respect,” Brundle said.
“Where my alarm bells are going off is in Monaco, where a lot of drivers there were getting this 0.1 [over the speed limit], and then of course we had all the shenanigans after the race.
“They set their pit limiters throughout the weekend, they aim at 59 and a bit if its a 60kp/h limit, or 79 and a bit. They really fine-tune it. We see a lot of penalties on a Friday, a few hungered euros for going over the pit lane speed limit.
“But it’s perceived as a competitive advantage, and when you see how close those lines are with Antonelli for example, if somebody goes ‘0.1’s alright, so 0.3’s alright’ then suddenly you get ahead.
“So there has to be a cut-off point. Whether it’s the width of the car, the weight of the car, the speed of the car in the pit lane.
“It’s painful and it’s harsh but it’s the rules, as long as he was actually doing that speed, which they weren’t in Monaco.”
- Lewis Larkam
Sunday, 26 July 2026
Saturday, 25 July 2026
ADRIAN NEWEY DELIVERS INITIAL VERDICT ON HEAVILY REVISED ASTON MARTIN AMR26
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| Adrian Newey has cast his early verdict on the heavily revised AMR26 |
Adrian Newey has delivered his initial verdict on the heavily revised Aston Martin AMR26 that debuted in FP1 at the Formula 1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
All eyes in the paddock centred on Aston Martin on Friday as its revised car made its on-track debut in a bid to transform its underperforming season.
Featuring 16 upgrades that include new rear and front wings, diffuser, and sidepods, Friday’s practice sessions were effectively data-gathering sessions.
A metaphorical spanner in the works came in the form of suspension failure for Lance Stroll in FP1, the team reduced to relying on Fernando Alonso’s data as Stroll did not run in FP2 as a result of the damage.
As much as five seconds adrift of the frontrunners in terms of pace recent races, Alonso ended FP1 just 2.4 seconds away from the leading time, the gap increasing slightly to 2.9 seconds in FP2.
After FP1, Newey gave his initial verdict, calling the results “promising”.
“Very early days in terms of understanding the new package. Provisional results are promising,” he said in the Team Principal’s press conference.
“It’s only part of the package. We will have some more steps in Zandvoort, Monza and Baku, so it is the first part of our planned upgrade. Very short on parts so being careful with it and trying to learn all about it.”
“It’s an evolution in as much as the chassis is the same, the layout’s the same, front suspension’s the same. So, it’s very much an aerodynamic evolution,” Newey added.
“We were very short on time research time prior to launch of the car back in at Barcelona in February.
“So, it’s really been a matter of taking a step back, trying to understand, and go forward with this package.”
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| Aston Martin debuted a heavily revised AMR26 on Friday |
Package goals for Aston Martin?
Newey has denied that set goals are attached to the heavily revised car, explaining his rationale of patience.
“I’ve never been a fan of setting goals,” he said.
“Much more a fan of working logically through problems, getting everybody working together, getting a culture together, and then at that point, you end up where you end up.
“What I have found over the years is when you’re not winning, it seems an impossible mountain to climb. When you are winning, sometimes you’re not sure how you got there, because you’re not actually doing anything different, or you don’t feel as if you’re doing anything different.”
Newey confirmed that Aston Martin has yet to determine the cause of Stroll’s suspension failure, though he added vital context about which part failed.
“Everybody is feverishly trying to understand what went wrong and it is only once we have an understanding that we can comment on what we do next.
“The area involved is not what has been changed, so in that sense it was very unexpected.”
Newey is justifiably keeping his cards close to his chest on upgrades to the AMR26, with the stopwatch in qualifying to provide a definitive answer on their impact.
- James Phillips
Friday, 24 July 2026
ASTON MARTIN HAS A STAGGERING SIXTEEN UPGRADED PARTS TO THE #HUNGARIANGP
Aston Martin has brought a staggering SIXTEEN updated parts to the #HungarianGP #F1 #AstonMartin
'TOO COMPLICATED' - CAN F1 DRIVERS REGAIN CONTROL FROM AI ENGINES?
The key theme among drivers in the build-up to Formula 1’s Hungarian Grand Prix so far has been concerns about how much results in 2026 are out of their hands.
Last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix exposed how forward-thinking algorithms that dictate where and when energy should be deployed are causing frustration among the majority of drivers.
It led to baffling straightline speed deficits between identical cars and drivers feeling like what the algorithm decided was a key factor in deciding qualifying and the race.
Oscar Piastri complained at Spa that when qualifying is being “decided by computers behaving or misbehaving, it's a pretty crap way of going racing.”
Asked in Hungary if it “sometimes feels like you’re the passenger of an AI programme that still has to be trained?”, Piastri replied: “Sometimes, yes. At a track like Spa or a track like Silverstone, it’s going to be worse.
“Here [at the Hungaroring], I really don’t expect there to be many problems at all with that kind of thing, because the straights are so much shorter, so even if there are differences, they should be a lot less.
“But the principle of driving a race car that loses effectively half of its power before the end of the straight is hard to get your head around sometimes.
“Even in Spa, a lot of the middle sector we were doing it just on the combustion engine, with no battery assistance at all, which is a weird feeling in itself, having some corners with a certain amount of power and others with full power.
“Spa was particularly frustrating, not just for me but for quite a lot of others, because those small differences in the code and what the engines did made quite a big difference in laptime.
“Especially at the front of the field, I think there were still only nine hundredths or something separating four positions [0.094s covered third to sixth], and there were definitely more than nine hundredths on the table for quite a few drivers from things they could not control.”
These forward-thinking algorithms have existed for a long-time before 2026, but as Piastri highlighted, knowledge of the previous power units was so mature, the impact was minimal.
“When I joined Formula 1 [in 2023], those engines were incredibly mature, but also the penalty of things being slightly wrong or slightly out of place was significantly less, because it was such a small percentage of the overall power you got,” Piastri said.
“Whereas this year, it’s basically half your power, so any small differences or anything that doesn’t quite go right has a massive impact, especially at a track like Spa.
“We’ve got no control over where the deployment happens, more or less. You can push the boost button, but that’s more for overtaking than in qualifying, especially.
“When you’ve got those differences there that you have no control over, it can be frustrating.”
‘Less raw’ a challenge
Charles Leclerc has long bemoaned the reduced challenge of qualifying in 2026 and how you can actually be punished for the kind of all-out qualifying laps he’s become renowned for. He gave the example of doing a “very good” La Source Turn 1 at Spa, only to be punished for it as he then consequently lacks power on the Kemmel Straight.
He explained "I feel like we all get surprised here and there on different tracks, because it's never always always the same reason why a problem has occurred, which makes it quite complicated.”
As Max Verstappen summed up: “Sometimes you cannot make a difference. You're not allowed to make a difference because it will just penalise you on the next straight.”
Asked if fast drivers were still being rewarded, Leclerc said: “The characteristics of a fast driver is to adapt, constantly and quickly.
“To be a fast driver only on one car- I mean, it is not great, and I don't think it exists so much either. I think a fast driver is fast in any car.
“Does it add a little bit more unpredictability with these cars? Yes, it does, and I think pushing the absolute limit is probably less rewarding than it was in the past because whenever you go over, whenever you have a wheelspin, you waste energy on a wheelspin because you're not going forward but you're using the battery.
“So all these kinds of things are making it a bit- it's less raw and it's a little bit more of a thinking game and of restraining yourself from going to the absolute limit, which is not my favourite exercise but again it's the way it is and I've got to optimise whatever I have.”
‘Too complicated’ - but will it change?
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| Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu (left) and Mercedes deputy team principal Bradley Lord |
It’s not just drivers calling for change either as Haas team boss Ayao Komatsu thinks F1’s formula is “just too complicated” currently as “it relies on a tiny detail of driver operation that has an unintended or secondary consequence.
“I think we all identify the need to avoid [it] and improve as a sport to bring the control back to the driver and also just simplify for everyone.
“It's very important that everyone understands the sport regardless of what your interests are. To be able to do that, I think the sport has to be a bit more simplified.”
But whether it will change before F1’s likely switch to simpler V8 engines remains to be seen.
There are 2027 and 2028 rule changes planned that will shift F1 from its current 53-47 internal combustion engine to electrical power split to 60-40 in favour of the internal combustion engine.
But that won’t eliminate the predictive algorithms, just reduce their importance as the electrical deployment is lessened.
Piastri does think that teams’ growing understanding of how to exploit these power units will help too.
“I’m sure it’ll get better. I don’t expect it to ever fully go away, but as the manufacturers understand it more and work out the regulation restrictions more, in terms of what the code can and can’t do, hopefully things will become a bit better,” Piastri said.
That will lead to fewer mistakes with the algorithms but won’t necessarily mean more power back in the driver’s hands.
A counter view
Not everyone is aligned that things need to be simplified in the first place, however.
When asked about the predictive algorithms, Audi F1 driver Gabriel Bortoleto said: “We are in Formula 1. We are developing the future technology.
“If we are not using all the tools that are available in the world for us, in our favour, then I don't know what Formula 1 is about.
“People used to complain because ‘nowadays the drivers have too much things to do’, now that there is things doing it for us, we are complaining now that they are doing it for us - so I'm happy with the way it's going.
“It's nice that the software is able to adapt itself and understand what and how much energy you are deploying through the lap and how to evolve through the laps, next laps you are doing. I don't think it should change, if I'm very honest, that's my opinion.”
He thinks adapting to such a challenge is just part of being an F1 driver.
“I don't think I changed much my way of driving, but again I don't like the sentence 'driving style', because I don't believe that a F1 driver should ever say that, because we should be able to adapt, even if it's not natural maybe.
“But we should be able to adapt to any type of car and the way you need to drive, that's why we do what we do and that's why we are the 22 drivers in the world doing F1.”
On the subject of whether the fastest drivers are still able to stand out, Bortoleto said: “Well, do you see Verstappen being slow? Do you see a seven-time world champion being slow this year? Do you see Leclerc being slow? I don't see them being slow, I still see them very competitive, so I wouldn't say fast drivers are slow.
“Actually Lewis [Hamilton] is a bit better than he was doing last year, Max is still performing like crazy, putting that car on the top, Lando [Norris], the world champion, the reigning world champion, is still quick when his thing doesn't break...
“I don't think we have seen slow drivers last year becoming quick and the quick guys slow, I think it's still racing.”
When Bortoleto’s comments were put to Max Verstappen, having clarified who said it, the Red Bull driver said: “Yeah, he's right. I mean, your driving style always needs to change to whatever is fastest.
“I can drive the cars just saying, ‘this is how I drive it’. Well, I can tell you in Spa, you lose half a second. That shows you how weird it is at the moment.“He’s right, you need to adapt. Adaptability is super important. But that goes for any, like all the series that you've raced in, all the way to F1, I think you always need to adapt to what is best for that car that you are driving.”
And when The Race put the question of whether F1 needs to move to put more power back in F1 drivers’ hands, Fernando Alonso - who may well feel there’s already plenty out of his control in F1 2026 so far in the slowest car - said: “I don’t know. It depends. I think F1 has always been a little bit like that.
“I don’t think the drivers were deciding everything, even when we had traction control and some of the other aids. It was very specific to each team, developed by each team in a different way, with different philosophies.
“You were pressing the throttle at the exit of the corners, and some cars were much better than the others. It’s not pure driver talent or input on some of the exits.
“It’s the same with the starts. I’ve been doing starts for 25 years, and we’ve had many different regulations. At the end of the day, there were always some cars and some teams starting better than the others, with both cars. It’s not just that someone was doing something differently with the clutch, with a technique or with the throttle application. Both cars from that team were extremely good or extremely bad.
“I think the team is always bringing the performance to everything. But yes, I think with these current regulations and the battery deployment, there is something that has to be fixed and improved. I think that’s well understood.
“We are in the first half of this set of regulations, in the first year, and there are already talks about 2030 or 2031 and the V8.
“Next year, there is already approval for the change to the combustion versus electrical part of the engine. There are things moving forward, and it’s well understood by the sport, by the teams and by everyone.
“I’m optimistic for the future that it will get better and that it will be better understood what the rules and what the cars need to be.”
- JOSH SUTTILL
Tuesday, 5 August 2025
TOTO WOLFF SENDS LEWIS HAMILTON STRONG MESSAGE AFTER HUNGARY DESPAIR
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| © XPBimages |
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has sent Lewis Hamilton a firm message after his horror weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Toto Wolff believes Lewis Hamilton was "raw" and simply "wearing his heart on his sleeve" after comments made during a dismal Hungarian GP weekend.
After being eliminated in 12th place in Q2, Hamilton claimed he was "useless" and suggested Ferrari needed to find "another driver", such has been his struggles.
He then went on to record his worst-ever finish in Hungary, a lapped 12th, and doubled down on those comments, but did indicate he would still be in the seat for the Dutch Grand Prix.
Analysing the situation, Wolff, with whom Hamilton won six of his seven world titles at Mercedes, believes his former driver must remember that he is the "greatest of all time."
"No, it was Lewis wearing his heart on his sleeve," Wolff told media, including RacingNews365, when asked if Hamilton had registered a decline in his abilities.
"It's very much what he felt when he was asked after the session, he was very raw, he doubted himself, and we've had it in the past, that when he felt he had underperformed his own expectations, he's been emotional.
"He's emotionally transparent since he was a young boy and adult, so he is going to beat himself up. He is the GOAT, and he will always be the GOAT, and nobody is going to take that away, and for sure not a single weekend or race season that has not gone to plan.
"It is something that he needs to remember, that he is the greatest of all time.
"Lewis has unfinished business in Formula 1, so in the same way that Mercedes underperformed over this latest set of regulations and never got happy with ground effect cars, maybe it is linked to the driving style.
"He shouldn't go anywhere next year with the brand-new cars, which are completely different to drive, new power units which need an intelligent way of managing the energy, so it's absolutely on for Lewis.
"I hope he stays on for many more years."
- Aaron Deckers & Jake Nichol
OSCAR PIASTRI DISCLOSES 'PAINFUL' RESPONSE TO LANDO NORRIS 'BATTLE' DEFEAT
Oscar Piastri has revealed how he felt in the aftermath of his narrow loss to Lando Norris at the Hungaroring.
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| © XPBimages |
Oscar Piastri has conceded it was "a bit painful" to stomach losing to Lando Norris by such a fine margin in the Hungarian Grand Prix.
The Australian crossed the Hungaroring finish line just under seven-tenths of a second after his McLaren team-mate, seeing his F1 drivers' championship advantage cut to a mere nine points as a result.
The fact that Norris utilised the alternate one-stop strategy to recover from fifth place at the end of the first lap to triumph is a bitter pill for Piastri, who stayed on the conventional two-stopper, to swallow.
Despite eradicating the British driver's advantage after pitting for the second time, as they converged on track, he was unable to pass, something that makes it all the more "difficult" to accept for the 24-year-old.
When asked for his overriding emotion after securing his 12th podium in the opening 14 rounds of the campaign, Piastri acknowledged how "entertaining the race was despite coming up short.
"Mixed, I would say," the eight-time grand prix winner replied to media, including RacingNews365.
"Whenever you lose a race by such a little amount, it's obviously a bit painful, but I mean, I'm sure it was entertaining from the outside. It was entertaining from the inside as well.
"So, you know, pretty fun race, all things considered. But, obviously, when you're on the losing side of that battle, it's a little bit difficult."
Having lost out to a superior strategy employed by his team for his team-mate, Piastri maintained it would be "easy to say in hindsight" what the correct course of action would have been.
Focusing on the positives of the grand prix, he highlighted how he was able to get past the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, who was battling issues, which helped him hold on to second place.
"But, yeah, we tried our best, I think, and, you know, we got ahead of Charles," the former F2 and F3 champion added.
"I don't know what happened to him in the last stint, but yeah, some things to look back on, whether we should have done something a bit different in terms of strategy, but very easy to say in hindsight."
- Samuel Coop
STELLA RESPONDS TO SPLIT MCLAREN STRATEGIST AS NORRIS BEATS PIASTRI
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| McLaren's Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri battle |
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella batted away any suggestion of their split in Hungarian Grand Prix strategy being unfair on Oscar Piastri.
Taking full advantage of the one-stop approach, Lando Norris was able to claim his fifth win of the season and reduce Piastri’s Championship lead to nine points. Piastri meanwhile was on a two-stop strategy, but Stella insisted that the one-stop was never a consideration until Norris drove it into reality.
McLaren split strategies in Hungary: Did Oscar Piastri get a fair deal?
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
Norris’ attack on Piastri at the start of the Hungarian GP backfired, Piastri covering Norris off as he dropped to fifth, Leclerc leading from Piastri. But it was Norris who ultimately claimed victory, having taken full advantage of a one-stop strategy.
Piastri did two stops. That allowed him to mount a challenge against Norris for the win in the closing laps, but Norris held firm, ensuring he heads into the summer break on a high and with crucial momentum for part two of F1 2025.
Having pitted Piastri for the first time on Lap 19, and again on Lap 46 – as he returned to the track P3 behind Leclerc and Norris – Stella would offer an explanation for McLaren’s strategical thinking.
Piastri was able to catch and pass Leclerc, but Norris proved too tough of a case to crack.
“Had we pitted Oscar before, he might have ended up behind Lando, but we wanted to give Oscar enough of a tyre delta to pass Leclerc, but also to have a fair chance on Lando, because that would have meant being on an optimal two-stop,” Stella told the media, including PlanetF1.com.
“So we wanted to make sure that, thinking about Leclerc, we were not deviating too much off of an optimal two-stop, because that would have been unfair to Oscar in relation to his competition with Lando, which was fair.
“And we also checked with Oscar what is better, of course. Certainly he wanted to have an opportunity to win the race, and we thought that with enough tyre delta to Leclerc, Oscar would have had a chance in the end.
“So I think actually, let me say that the race unfolded pretty much as we hoped it would unfold in terms of tyre behaviour, which means tyres that lasted enough for a one-stop, when we decided to keep Lando out.
“And also in the second stint, tyres and car pace that would have allowed Oscar to pass Leclerc, and then actually the two stylege [sic] has proved to be quite equivalent.”
Pressed on whether the McLaren strategy was ultimately unfair on Piastri, as Norris came from behind to win with a one-stop, Stella added: “Our baseline strategy today was a two-stop strategy. We didn’t think necessarily that the one-stop was possible.
“So with Oscar, we tried to go on a good and deterministic two-stop strategy, trying to pass Leclerc in the first stop. Then we tried to extend in the second stop to have a tyre delta in order to have those few tenths of a second to be able to pass Leclerc. And this did work.
“When it comes to Lando and the one-stop strategy, when we extended leaving Lando out, we didn’t think that the one-stop would have been possible still. But credit to Lando, he managed to put together some very strong sectors and lap times with tyres that were relatively used.
“So we somehow convinced ourselves that the one-stop was starting to get in the game as we progressed with the first stint. It wasn’t like entering the race with a one or a two-stop, and we would have picked the net equivalent. We thought that the two-stop would be the dominant strategy.”
The first round of pit-stops featured an unsuccessful undercut attempt for McLaren with Piastri on Leclerc. It was put to Stella that this was a deciding factor in the race.
“I think in terms of the two-stop for Oscar and the stopping time, is that also his tyres were starting to suffer a little bit in the first stint,” Stella responded. “It wasn’t clear what the power of the undercut would have been, but it was worth a try.
“And even extending, when you have tyres that don’t behave very well, not necessarily will make the extension something that will reward you.
“So we wanted to give a first go at trying to pass Leclerc. We knew that there would have been a second go later on in the race, and at the time, definitely the one-stop for Lando was outside of any card, because, like I said before, it’s an option from a strategic point of view that we discovered while we were staying out with Lando.”
Hungary marked back-to-back races where the McLaren cars went down alternate strategy paths.
Last time out at the Belgian Grand Prix, Norris had moved to hard tyres once the track dried, compared to mediums for Piastri. That decision also resulted in a battle for the win, Piastri victorious on that occasion.
These recent examples can be seen as reflections of the value which McLaren wants to bring to Formula 1.
“Well, we are McLaren Racing,” said Stella. “We bring the value of racing into Formula 1.
“So we want to give great racing for Formula 1, we want to give our two drivers the possibility to utilise, express their talent, pursue their aspirations, their personal success, and this is to happen within the boundaries of the team interest and the fairness, the scholarship, and the respect for one another.
“For me, this is what I see. When we have a deviating strategy, when we have different options, I think this is part of racing. We want to make sure that none of the drivers are surprised, and I think none of the drivers were surprised.
“And so far, I can only be very grateful to the way Lando and Oscar have interpreted the way we were racing as a team, as a group, which include the drivers, and I’m sure this is going to be the same until the end of this season.”
- Jamie Woodhouse
Sunday, 3 August 2025
MAX VERSTAPPEN MAKES SHOCK REQUEST AFTER RED BULL HORROR SHOW
Max Verstappen has made a request not many would expect given one of the reigning world champion's greatest strengths.
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| © XPBimages |
Max Verstappen has requested that rain does not fall during the Hungarian Grand Prix, with the Dutchman hoping for a dry race at the Hungaroring.
Red Bull has endured a disastrous weekend in Hungary, to the extent that Verstappen had to settle for eighth on the grid.
Yuki Tsunoda suffered a fourth Q1 exit in the last eight races, although was only 0.163s slower than his team-mate in the first part of qualifying.
Both Red Bull drivers have encountered major grip issues, resulting in a dramatic loss of performance.
Discussing Red Bull's grip issues, Verstappen told select media, including RacingNews365: "It's not running all weekend, so in that area [I feel] the same.
"Sometimes you think the balance is actually not very bad yet, in terms of a lot of understeer or oversteer.
"But you just have zero grip, you can't attack corners and can't get on the gas. Nothing actually..."
Following qualifying, Verstappen was very vocal over the difficulties with the RB21, similar to how he reacted to qualifying in seventh last season at the Italian Grand Prix.
Asked if qualifying felt as bad as Monza last year, Verstappen stated: "In my opinion it was. It wasn't long ago... Monza was also really bad.
"I also have little confidence that things will improve a lot during the race. I just don't have any grip, so then you're just sliding. I also have more tyre wear, so that doesn't really help either."
Interestingly, the weather looks set for a significant change ahead of the race, with heavy rain forecast.
This has usually been a blessing for the four-time world champion; however, he is hopeful the showers stay away from the circuit.
"I never expected it to be our best weekend, but this was too tough. With the feeling I have in the car now, I'm also definitely hoping it doesn't rain."
- Aaron Deckers & Nick Golding
Monday, 22 July 2024
Sunday, 21 July 2024
Saturday, 20 July 2024
HUNGARIAN GRAND PRIX FRIDAY PRACTICE
McLaren and Lando Norris led the way on pure pace in a sweltering Hungarian Grand Prix Friday practice showing. But the long-run times from the upgrade-assessing Red Bull squad suggest another intriguing battle at the front between Formula 1 2024’s top two squads is set to come on Sunday in Budapest.
Lando Norris and McLaren led the way on pure pace on Friday at Formula 1’s 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix, but a deeper look at the long-run times suggests Red Bull possesses a race pace advantage at this stage.
Red Bull also spent the day assessing the impact of its much-discussed engine cover cooling upgrade applied so far only to Max Verstappen’s car, while Ferrari too was working through what data it could on its reworked Barcelona floor amid Charles Leclerc’s disrupted day.
All that and more is included in our assessment of where things stand so far at the Hungaroring.
The story of the day.
In FP1, sweltering temperatures were the most notable element – with track heat peaking at 59.1°C, which Pirelli claims is only topped in its historical F1 data by 60°C in the 2018 race here and the 61°C in FP1 at the 2016 Malaysian GP.
F1 got to glimpse at Verstappen’s heavily revised RB20 – minus the high-waisted cooling gulleys added to Red Bull’s package at the start of the year – when he headed out of the pits, while Perez continued with the team’s old design.
Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko would later claim “Checo has got the same upgrade as Max, but that one part [sidepod and engine cover] is the most obvious to see, so everyone thinks that he doesn’t have it”.
“But Checo has the rest,” Marko continued. “So the difference is marginal in terms of performance.”
Aston Martin also split its car specification in FP1, as only Fernando Alonso ran its raft of front wing, halo, floor, diffuser and beam wing updates (Lance Stroll got these for FP2). Here the Ferraris were fitted with the revised floors that the Scuderia hopes will cure the high-speed corner bouncing that has afflicted the SF-24s since Barcelona.
Carlos Sainz led the way in the day’s opening session, setting a best time of 1m18.713s to forge ahead of Leclerc, before Verstappen nipped in with a 1m18.989s to end up 0.276s down in second. Verstappen was, however, running used softs and so missing peak new tyre freshness, as he’d opened up on the softs when the Ferraris ran hards.
In FP2, Ferrari’s day took a downturn, as Leclerc caused a long red-flag period with his Turn 4 crash in the initial running on mediums. Running wide onto the exit kerbs at the fast left-hander unsettled his car and spun him off and backwards into the barriers on the track’s outside. After a 15-minute delay as the barriers were rearranged, the pack headed back out en masse on the softs, which meant Perez’s early session-leading 1m18.568s on the mediums was eclipsed.
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